Miscellaneous - 22/8/2003-23/8/2003

  by Benjamin Howarth

published: 18 / 8 / 2003

intro

Back for a second year to the Reading Festival, Ben Howarth over the course of it first two days takes in such varied sights as Bowling for Soup, Mull Historical Society, Polyphonic Spree, the Ataris and Blur...

My second Reading festival…and this time I was prepared (I think). Last year began with a hike round the entire festival site, no one being able to inform as to where the campsite we want to get to might be. This year we knew where to go, and to get there early. I packed earplugs to help me get just a little sleep (this wasn’t perfect but I tried!). What I wasn’t prepared for was how dusty the whole place was, and I’d blocked out how disgusting the whole experience of camping and using festival loos and not having a proper wash really is. Very. But it was all worth it, because (though the overall line up may not have been in the league of previous years) for me, this was a great line up and some of my all time favourite groups were going to be descending on Berkshire this weekend. I’d like to be able to recount a series of mad festival escapades, but I set myself up for a band watching marathon, and ended up catching 33 bands! Most of Friday was spent in the Radio One tent, Saturday was the day when the Concrete Jungle punk/hardcore/emo fest descends on what for the rest of the time was the Comedy stage, and Sunday mainly involved the main stage. I got my money’s worth…….here is what I thought of them all. FRIDAY On the small Carling stage, Colour Of Fire kicked the festival off. We caught the latter stages of their set as soon as we had fought our way through the crowds trying to enter the main arena. Though playing this early in the day and before the festival mood has really kicked off is a daunting task, I wasn’t unappreciative of their vaguely arty emo-core. Having said that I won’t commit myself and say they were very good quite yet! On the other hand, a precedent could be Pretty Girls Make Graves, who played the same stage at the same time last year and now look poised to make a real breakthrough. Next up was the main stage and a spur of the moment decision to watch chart bound punkers Bowling For Soup. They did a fine job of really kicking off the festival properly with a good set that mixed wacky humour with some good catchy punchy pop. Some people might like to say that this is inane, immature, kid’s stuff. Perhaps. But songs like 'Emily' and '“Punk Rock 101' are really very good, and I really enjoyed this. As good as Bowling For Soup were, however, they were never going to match up with the fantastic Saves The Day, the first truly great band on the bill. Perhaps lacking the ‘attitude’ required to be mega stars, Saves The Day are armed with fantastic songs aplenty. Coming across like the Get Up Kids covering Teenage Fanclub, they could turn from bouncy pogo friendly pop to a soaring lament with barely a pause and won the appreciation of a large crowd. New tracks aired in this set suggest that their new album will be even better than the incredible 'Stay What You Are'. A pleasure to watch. Friday was the day I hopped stages the most, and I hadn’t really planned what I wanted to see beforehand. A quick trip to the Carling stage again, and Rocket Science. Pretty standard garage rock fare, with added keyboards, but a manic singer who has an air of Nick Cave about him and could be a star. If they can adapt when this whole garage fad dies then they might be worth keeping an eye on. Some of the songs would have been good, especially considering the great vocals, if the dull garage stylings hadn’t made them a little predictable. Oh well…. My first trip to the brand new dance arena came for Buck 65, who won my respect for slanging the brand sponsorship of the tent (“I’m here to dance, not sell you Vodka”), for strolling down to chat to the crowd pre-gig and for covering a Woody Guthrie song. His music is incredible, and unique. Another one to watch! Strolling into the Radio One tent, I hear something familiar. It was Mull Historical Society, one of my earliest interviews for Pennyblackmusic. Colin McIntyre is a top-notch songwriter, and I like the fact that he’s just doing his own thing in such fashion orientated times. Watch out for his third record, (on which, if he does use the tape, I will make an appearance as an in the crowd backing vocalist!!). The new songs aired today were very special indeed. Ladytron, on the other hand, are very overrated. They lacked any real energy, and though they played some good songs (especially 'Blue Jeans' and' Playgirl'), they are far too formulaic and repetitive. And they have the bass FAR too loud in the mix, which only heightened the feeling of repetitiveness because it buried the (limited) melodies completely. Their success is a prime example of fashion over sense. Electric Six were entertaining, and the crowd was insane during ‘Gay Bar’, but I still think they are far less clever than they think they are. The day belonged to the mighty Interpol in my eyes. This band is a dream come true, stylish and touting a set of peerless gripping songs. People compare them to Joy Division. They are better than Joy Division. Every single song is memorable, awkward and loveable. The band are as tight as nails, yet sound completely unforced. I really believe that, potentially, they are the greatest band to emerge in years and years. Back over in the dance tent, Blackalicious dealt in good vibes hip hop-reggae-soul. I’ve never seen a gig like this before, and I was impressed with how they got the crowd going. I was really in the mood, however, for something mellower, and switched back to the Radio One tent for Elbow, who were alright. They have some great songs, especially ‘Red’, but they’re not quite in the league of, say, Doves – to whom they are a little too similar. Again in the tent, THE POLYPHONIC SPREE headlined. Aside from their gear taking an age to set up (well, with that many people it would, right?) it was the perfect festival set. They just seem like the sort of band that everyone wants to like. It’s such a perfect formulae, and such a great idea. You wonder why it’s never been done before. They’ve promised to be back next year, they’d better be!! SATURDAY It’s always an anomoly when a band gets big after a festival bill is announced. Funeral For A Friend were billed bottom of the Concrete Jungle Stage but look set now to follow in the footsteps of Hundred Reasons and Hell Is For Heroes and because of that ended up playing to a crowd that overflowed the tent and was bigger than that which any of the other bands played to. To be honest, they were quite good, but they didn’t deserve it. Subsequent bands completely blew them off the stage. Not King Prawn though! Their ska-punk sound went down well, but I thought it was totally boring and unoriginal, not to mention sloppily performed. It’s a shame because they have a positive outlook and message of racial equality that really deserves to be heard. Sadly, though, there is a good reason why a band that’s been playing for years still has a low billing in a small tent at Reading as the biggest gig of its year. The cool thing about the Concrete Jungle stage, however, was the diversity and willingness to book acts completely un-established in Britain. Thrice is one such band, but won’t be like that for long. Their passionate hardcore made an immediate impact and was perhaps not as good live as on record, but still enjoyable. Poison The Well is a new name to me, but they are another up and coming hardcore band that already have a decent fanbase. The atmosphere in the tent really began to grow during this set as well, which suited the Movielife who were the first well-known band to play. They come to Britain more than most of the acts on the Drive Thru label and, though I don’t rate them as highly as New Found Glory or Home Grown, Drive Thru don’t sign weak bands. The Movielife have a lot of energy in the live arena, and came across as great guys. Next up, Boy Sets Fire played a truly explosive set of emo-core with a social conscience. Anyone looking for the natural inheritors to the throne of At The Drive-In should certainly give this band a listen. For some reason, a trendy garage rock band got shoved in the middle of this great emo-hardcore-punk bill. Most of the crowd cleared out to be replaced by indie fans, who for some reason got very excited about the said band. But Turbonegro wins the award for being the most atrocious load of crap I’ve ever seen in my life. Not only was their music of that lame, derivative garage rock variety I so loathe, their lyrics were appalling. Sometimes just plain dumb, but sometimes far far worse. “Selling my body to the night, selling my body to the night”… yeah, clever mate, real edgy, and so original! Come back Motley Crue – all is forgiven. Something that really bugs me about the indie scene in Britain is the prejudice against American punk bands. Ignoring pointless debates about what does and doesn’t constitute ‘punk’, the quality of the music is often high. Mad Caddies are a ska-punk band. Yes, the band played to an audience almost entirely made up of skaters, but their music is interesting. Built on a wide range of influences with skilled but loose musicianship, they’re about as sound a bet as you’ll get for an up tempo catchy dance band. Alkaline Trio have a good reputation and are an excellent band, on record. While this though wasn’t a bad show, they for some reason they didn’t quite explode into life. Perhaps the crowd, either shattered from leaping around like loonies to the Mad Caddies or (like me) subconsciously saving themselves for the next group, just wasn’t in the right frame of mind to give the band the energy they deserved. Still, I’ll be seeing them again in a few weeks, so I’ll reserve judgement till then. The Ataris are my favourite band of the moment, no doubt about that, and even the delights of the wonderful Black Rebel Motorcycle Club on the main stage – the second bloody year in a row I’d had to miss them – couldn’t keep me away from them. I may well have made a fool of myself jumping and singing along like a 10 year old, but I don’t care. The best thing about the show was that, even though they played about 13 songs and all were storming, you could have picked a completely different setlist that would have been just as good. That, to me, is the mark of a great artist, and the element of surprise is the mark of a really good show. After that, it was a relief to get out of the tent, and stroll about in the fresh air as the sun set. Though I was tempted to spend the entire day in the Concrete Jungle tent, and equally tempted to go and see Billy Bragg and call out for some songs from 'Mermaid Avenue', his collaboration with Wilco and Woody Guthrie, because I’m seriously and scarily obsessed with it at the moment. I in the end couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see one of the three bands that got me seriously into music (the others being The Beatles, of course, and Oasis), BLUR. This has had mixed reviews since, but I absolutely loved it. I have to be honest and say that Blur lacked the total charisma and command of the huge stage that I saw in Pulp last year, and would see in Metallica a day later, but it was a great show. And my judgement wasn’t blighted by being right at the front, I was towards the back, with the casual fans and it was still great. Damon Albarn has a nice manner on stage, doesn’t take himself too seriously and carries the band. It was nice to hear him dedicate ‘Tender’ to former guitarist Graham Coxon, and equally nice to see that the new guitarist is a very welcome figure on stage. ‘Tender’ was the highlight of the gig. After all it’s a song that was made for live performance and is one of the finest chart singles of the 90's. But ‘Out Of Time’ came close, and a number of the tracks from the recent ‘Think Tank’ album sounded exceptional. Since seeing it performed live, ‘Think Tank’ has come alive for me and my initial feelings of disappointment have evaporated. Of the old stuff, ‘End Of A Century’ and ‘To The End’ have aged very well, ‘Trimm Trabb’ has improved with a few years perspective, and ‘Badhead’ is a lovely song. Of course, playing 'Parklife' with Phil Daniels was a great way to end the gig, though they played a new song with him "rapping" hilarious lyrics like "you feel so low you start to start to stare at a wall, “piss off, I’m not a mirror !" Anyway, yet again, Blur have arrived at a festival with it all to prove (just like Reading ’92, Reading’ 93, Glasto ’94, Glasto ’98 and Reading ’99). And yet again, they pulled it off. They are still a great band! The first and the last photos that accompany originally appeared on the website www.virtual-festivals.com

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